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Road Trip USA (lite)
Prime
UKRegistered User regular
UKRegistered User regular
So me and my partner and a friend and his partner have been kicking around the idea of a mini 7 day road trip to USA (9 days holiday in total).
We've been looking at the West coast as there seems to be a lot we can see not so far apart (being as we'll only have 7 full days to look and explore places)
Los Ang -> Las Vegas -> Cali -> San Fran
Which would leave over 24 hours in each place. Anyone got any recommendations or must see places at those places/on route to those places?
I do have a couple of questions.
- What are the rules on just pulling over on route somewhere and camping up for the night? With/without small camp fire. As 1) we all enjoy a bit of a camp out 2) Saves us money on places to stay.
- Whats a good car rental place that we can pick up in Los Ang and hand back in San Fran and anything to be careful of when hiring one
- What kind of weather will it be for July/Aug?
- What can we expect (in the different place) to pay on average for hotels/bed and breakfast (you call them motels?)
About us to take into consideration
We're all aged 21-23.
We've got a bit of money but would like to save where we can.
We'd like to take some good pictures (two of our group being photography enthusiasts).
None of us are massive on a good night life but somewhere to drink and enjoy the evening would be good.
We'll be going this July/August time.
Any advise from locals would be much appreciated.
We've been looking at the West coast as there seems to be a lot we can see not so far apart (being as we'll only have 7 full days to look and explore places)
Los Ang -> Las Vegas -> Cali -> San Fran
Which would leave over 24 hours in each place. Anyone got any recommendations or must see places at those places/on route to those places?
I do have a couple of questions.
- What are the rules on just pulling over on route somewhere and camping up for the night? With/without small camp fire. As 1) we all enjoy a bit of a camp out 2) Saves us money on places to stay.
- Whats a good car rental place that we can pick up in Los Ang and hand back in San Fran and anything to be careful of when hiring one
- What kind of weather will it be for July/Aug?
- What can we expect (in the different place) to pay on average for hotels/bed and breakfast (you call them motels?)
About us to take into consideration
We're all aged 21-23.
We've got a bit of money but would like to save where we can.
We'd like to take some good pictures (two of our group being photography enthusiasts).
None of us are massive on a good night life but somewhere to drink and enjoy the evening would be good.
We'll be going this July/August time.
Any advise from locals would be much appreciated.
Prime on
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We did a similar road trip a couple of years ago as part of a longer trip around the states, although we did it San Francisco-Las Angeles-San Diego (Via Monteray). If you drive down Highway 1 it's absolutely beautiful and there are some nice stops along the way.
Saying this, you should really try to spend longer doing it, you won't get a sense of these places at all in a 24 hour stay. Most of each day will be spent trying to find somewhere to stay, checking in, finding somewhere to eat, seeing like 1 tourist thing and then crashing because you're exhausted after driving all day. We spent like 5 days in San Francisco (Green Tortoise Hostel is amazing and very very cheap), then a night in Monteray as we drove down, then a night in somewhere outside of LA, then a day in LA (we weren't very keen on it) and like 5/6 days in San Diego (Banana Bungalow is very grungy but is in an awesome location right on the beach).
I've been to both cities and they're is a ton of stuff to do at each. I don't know much about San Francisco, other than my dad lived there like 40 years ago, but since I'm around the same age as you, if I had a choice that'd be the city I'd leave for another time.
I'd buy a tent, and camp as much as possible. You'll save loads. Also, check out couchsurfing.com (although SF is a very popular city, so find people early).
I don't know much about camping, but I'd be careful about campfires in Californian summer. The last thing that's needed is more forest fires. :P For a motel you're looking at around $80 a night, on average, from what I've experienced.
It's going to be hot. You may want to consider that, too, when driving - and for goodness' sake get a car with air con. I once drove down the entire coast in one day in summer with no air con when it was 43 degrees Centigrade outside - you do not want to do that, believe me!
What are you and your friends interested in? That would help with giving recommendations. And for the cities themselves, or places along the way?
It will be fucking hot but San Francisco will be extra, extra humid. Almost every car will have some super-duper air conditioning button so don't worry about that.
If I were you (and the dates work out) i'd go on a Green Tortoise bus tour from San Francisco. They're a kind of hippy-hostel that run bus tours around California to places like Yosemite (fucking georgous) on these converted buses that sleep about 30 people. You'll cook some nice food, meet some awesome people and camp under the stars. You won't have to drive so you can drink all day, and you can hike in some beautiful places.
Check them out, we had an amazing time doing the yosemite trip (4 days) and they're very cheap for what you get.
http://www.greentortoise.com/adventure.travel.html
http://www.greentortoise.com/adventures/california.coast.monterey.sur.LA.html
you can't really just stop and camp anywhere unless you are in a national park. you definitely can't do that with a campfire during the summer, there will be fire restrictions pretty much everywhere.
you plan seems like way too much driving honestly
So things to see in those two places and the route inbetween would be good. I know my partner would like to go to a beach at least once, so where would be the best one to visit?
Me and my friend are into history/technology/music/camping
My partner and his are into famous people/movies/music/scenery.
Thanks for the suggestions Ponge, I'll pass the info on and see if it fits in with what we'd like to do.
When you're done, hop onto the US-1 and follow the coast straight to LA. It is an unimaginably scenic 7-8 hour drive. Be sure to swap drivers so that you can all equally share the viewing time.
I have a silly suggestion about the heat that probably differs from everyone else's: don't use AC at all. Roll down the windows for some breeze. Get used to the heat and you will feel it less. You don't feel temperature; you feel temperature difference. I moved to CA from NY and I used to hate it. Someone suggested that I stop using AC and it was all smiles from there. The downside is that now I hate it when every office I go to keeps the AC on at sub-70 F.
First of all, it is usually an EZ 10-20% off if you google for coupon codes and use those online. It might take some time to find ones that work.
Enterprise is usually good for drops in other cities. LA to Monterey drop off cost me $80 once. Enterprise also has 50% off weekends at most locations. This is up to 5 days max though and requires the inclusion of sat-sun night. I always find at least a 10-20% off coupon for enterprise online.
I just rented a car from Alamo at the Monterey airport (MRY) for 10.00/day weekend days. I got a car on a Friday and dropped it off on Monday for $45 including tax. See alamo.com "hot deals" link at the top.
I used to rent as an <25 driver in CA all the time. The fee is usually an EXTRA $25/day. $10 and $15 exist but are uncommon. YMMV on getting out of this by asking. Some enterprise locations will waive it if you ask. Sometimes coupons online will make that fee $0.00/day; just read the description. These are the best savings for <25 driver.
Unfortunately, this means while I travelled fairly extensively around this area, I flew over the bit you intend to drive! All I know is that a couple of friends worked and lived in Santa Cruz for a while (which is also where Lost Boys was filmed) so that may be worth a visit.
San Fran is a great place, I'm sure you'll enjoy it but if you're wanting to see more actual countryside than city, it's a shame you're not going north enough to see the Redwoods which are truly amazing.
As for LA, I didn't really care for the place myself (much like Vegas, which I slowly grew to hate) -- my advice, if you're able to stretch to it, is to push a little further and visit San Diego which was easily the best city I've been to in the US. Great weather, lots of great restaurants, gig venues and even micro-breweries for good beers. I would love to go back there.
On the way down between LA and SD, Del Mar and La Jolla are two smallish beachfront towns which seemed cool and served decent food etc. (kinda pricy though, and everyone is beautiful and tanned!).
Basically though, my advice is just to head out there and see what you find, do some winetasting at one of the many vinyards, explore small towns, etc. -- the West Coast is a beautiful area, you can't really go wrong!
Wine tasting and micro-breweries sound good to me!
edit: Any good history spots? Ive recently listened to BBC Radio 4 "America: Empire of Liberty" series and it was amazing and would love to see some historic sites myself. Any good spots around this area?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearst_Castle
A really tacky mishmash of several styles of European architecture. But tacky in a kind of cool way I think.
One of the best things we did was to hire bikes in San Francisco and cycle accross the Golden Gate bridge to Soselita. Amazing bike ride.
I second San Diego, it's got an amazing beach although EVERYONE is a tanned, beautiful person. I've never felt so fat, white and pasty. You can get 24 packs of "Natural Ice" (Natty Ice) beer for like $6 and play some mean drinking games. Your liver will never forgive you.
My family enjoyed Hearst Castle when they came to visit. And if you do pass through Monterey, you might want to consider visiting the aquarium.
And I third having enjoyed San Diego; I really liked the city.